A 3-Step Plan to Regulate the Fourth Sector Initiatives

1. Create a community: membership. information, communication

PROBLEM:

When stakeholders from the traditional sectors converge it doesn’t only blur sectorial boundaries, it also blurs the frontiers of the Fourth Sector itself. This blurring makes it difficult to identify and communicate with stakeholders and to locate information. This, in turn, makes it difficult to coordinate progress, and to set and execute democratic policies and programs. But it also prevents the sector and its stakeholders from having a unified voice and to advocate on behalf of stakeholders’ interests and to respond to public comments and concerns about them.

SOLUTION:

Provide central exchange of information, created by stakeholders for stakeholders;

Establish Peer-Review Council of industry experts and professionals that is independent from the Board of Directors to ensure accuracy of information;

Enable a scalable and open membership that represents Canada’s Fourth Sector by geography, by initiative, and by stakeholder;

Provide channels of communication through committee, program, and community participation

Create a peer directory to identify and promote stakeholders and to facilitate interaction.

The formation of an Advocacy and Response Press Department

2. Certification & Disclosures: Track and verify

PROBLEM:

Just as Fourth Sector organizations and initiatives can fall between sectorial cracks, they can just as easily fall between jurisdictional and regulatory cracks. Escaping the reach of any statutory or independent regulator can expose stakeholders to exploitation, abuse, and liability, with no recourse, which jeopardizes confidence in the sector.

SOLUTION:

Mandatory testing and certification (where no such requirements exist, but where there is evidence it is needed);

Compulsory disclosure and verification processes;

Promoter registration and ongoing filing prerequisites;

Create a centralized social platform for social reporting.

3. Enforcement of disciplinary measures and provision of stakeholder insurances

PROBLEM:

Most stakeholders in the Fourth Sector understand that it is easier to do well by doing good than by doing bad. But without measures to ensure accountability, recourse, and restitution, larger numbers of Canadians may easily become targets and then victims of wrongdoing, misrepresentation, and even fraud. This is especially dangerous when well-funded organized groups or companies fall between regulatory cracks and are beyond accountability and reproach. Further, members of the public may not have the resources to determine, in real-time, the legitimacy behind certain statements and representations, and they may not have the resources to protect themselves and enforce their rights against such abuses.

This problem, therefore, has two sides:

[1] the defenses against--and the punitive measures to deal with--abusive promoters and other stakeholders; and

[2] remedies for members of the public who may be harmed by such abuse